Back by popular demand, we are hosting another open house! We are fixing the HIVE up right now so it should be extra nice and clean for this event! Some of the things that will be going on during the day will be soldering classes (with a special surface mount demonstration as well), resin casting, 3d printing, laser cutting, and lock picking. You can also come down and check out some of the cool projects that our members have done and just check out the space and see what we have to offer.

The event will run at our space (2929 Spring Grove Ave.) on Saturday, January 21 from approximately 1pm to 5pm. It will be kid and family friendly*. (* = It isn’t the best place for very young kids, probably best if they are over 8. There are lots of sharp objects laying about and dangerous tools). The event is free of charge and we will have some snacks and drinks for everyone!

If you’ve been wanting to come check out the space this is a great event to look around and chat with other people. There will be lots of events going on and hopefully lots of people so clear your calendar and bring the family!

DIY Camp at Portland’s ADX Hackerspace

Join Troop 417 at Camp ADX every Wednesday at 6PM this summer for how-to training on making your own DIY survival tools and you’ll be more prepared! Learn…

How-to make a backpack
How-to make a fishing pole
How-to make a compass
How-to make a stove
How-to make a radio
How-to make a raft
How-to make booze

“Meet the Makers at Community Workshops”
In a gratifying trend, mainstream articles like this Minneapolis StarTribune article and video are starting to describe the hackerspace scene and do a pretty good job at it.

Riley Harrison holds up his favorite bow. “It’s got red oak on the belly and hickory on the back and the handle is layered of walnut and red oak,” he said, barely audible over the grind — saws splitting wood, hammers bouncing off anvils, drills pressing through metal sheets.

The bow Harrison holds is one he shaped with his own hands. The hours of work it took, however, to bend, smooth and laminate the wood were not spent in his garage or basement, but at the Hack Factory, a community workshop in Minneapolis’ Seward neighborhood.

The Hack Factory is what’s known as a “maker space.” Operated by Twin Cities (TC) Maker, the Hack Factory is a community-shared workspace that offers a cornucopia of tools and machinery for members like Harrison to take their do-it-yourself urges to the extreme.

Game Programming With JavaScript at Philly’s Hive76

Programming is a lot of fun, and games are one of the best ways to get exposed to a variety of different programming tasks. My name is Sean McBeth and I’m versed in many ways of programming, having been working as a professional software developer for over 10 years. In that time, JavaScript has always been there for me. It is a language that everyone can run in some shape or form, thanks to the ubiquity of Web browsers; it is the BASIC of the modern computing era. Sharing that knowledge is important to me, so I am offering a class where everyone learns (or polishes) an extremely useful scripting language (JavaScript, aka ECMAScript, but NOT Java) in a very compelling medium (ahem, games).

All of the “class” materials will be posted here. This event is for the one of the weekly “lab sessions” that I am holding at our hackerspace to help anyone who needs a hands-on approach. The online materials will all be free, while the lab sessions will be ala-carte and only $20 each ($15 for members).

Session #1 takes place August 6th at 7pm.

Houston’s TX/RX Labs’ Pop Machine Goes RFID

The Drink Machine has been converted into a dual cash/RFID drink machine letting individuals pay via a balance they can place on their RFID card using paypal or cash/check. This is hopefully just one of many xbee based LDB projects which will allow the lab to become more dynamic and interactive.